Over the Labor Day Weekend I went back to Urbandale, IA for the 2013 Hobby Haven Off-Road Shootout. This is the 14th year of this annual local event, but this race has now grown into a recognized regional event that attracts more out of state racers each year. This year we saw 258 entries with racers not only from Iowa but also surrounding states like Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, South Dakota, Wisconsin, plus farther away states like Ohio, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Florida.

The track before qualifying began on Saturday.

There were 10 different classes to compete in and the race program called for controlled practice on Friday, followed by three rounds of IFMAR qualifying on Saturday, and on Sunday all the mains would be held.

On Friday the parking lot had transformed into tent city.

On Friday morning the parking lot was busy with action as drivers claimed their pit spot and setup up their pop-up tents. The next thing many did was to hook into a power source so they could turn on their fans to help keep cool. The bright sun combined with the heat index pushed the temperatures well past 100 that day.

JConcepts driver Dave “Double D” Duncan.Photo credit – Bubba Boggs

One driver who was used to high temperatures and humidity was Florida native Dave Duncan. This year’s Shootout marked the 5th consecutive year that JConcepts was the title sponsor, and for the 2nd year in a row Dave made the trip to Iowa to race and provide product support as the official JConcepts representative.

More familiar faces at the Shootout this year were X Factory’s Paul and Chazz Sinclair. For the third year in a row X Factory was the official class sponsor of the Stock 2WD Buggy class. They would award a free carbon fiber X – 6 Cubed conversion kit to the highest finishing driver who is not already sponsored by a chassis manufacturer.

X Factory’s Chazz Sinclair.

But in a surprise move on Saturday, Chazz announced that they had also decided to offer the same award to the highest finishing non sponsored driver in the Stock Stadium Truck class too. These were the two largest classes of the weekend with 39 entries in Stock 2WD Buggy and 33 entries in Stock Stadium Truck, and offering these free conversion kits made these classes even more competitive and fun to watch.

Tekno sponsored two classes this year.

Speaking of sponsors, Tekno RC was back as a sponsor for the 1/8 Electric buggy class for the second year in a row. They would award a free V4 brushless kit for the Team Associated RC8B to one lucky A Main finalist in that class. And this year they also sponsored the Modified 4WD Short Course Truck class. The highest finishing driver in that class that already didn’t have a chassis sponsor would obtain a sponsorship from Tekno RC.

Driver’s meeting Saturday morning.

On Saturday the temperatures cooled off to the mid 90’s which felt like winter compared to the day before. We held a brief driver’s meeting and then started up the three rounds of IFMAR qualifying. Since we were using qualifying points your best two finishes out of three rounds would determine your overall starting position for the mains on Sunday. The track crew did a great job repairing the track from the extreme dry conditions on Friday and on Saturday they watered it throughout the day which made the surface more consistent and helped to keep the dust to a minimum.

The 3rd round of qualifying was held under the lights.

With 96 heats that day qualifying went well into the night, and by the time the sun went down the moisture started to come back up on the track surface. This meant we saw some of the best qualifying times during the third round under the lights.

Double D’s new truck sponsor.

The lights of course tend to attract bugs, and one bug in particular that likes to come out during the time of the Shootout are brown praying mantises. You could find them out on the track, flying by the lights, or in the pits. If they could be trained to marshal a car then that would make it much easier on the rest of us. 🙂

Leading up to this weekend, central Iowa hadn’t received any substantial amounts of rain for nearly four weeks. Early Sunday morning a freak storm blew in around 4am and it brought along both rain and strong winds.

The Hobby Haven parking lot Sunday morning after the storm.

The Hobby Haven parking lot quickly turned into a pop-up tent graveyard as many racers found their tent frame twisted and tables overturned the next morning.

Sunday morning the track is a muddy mess.

Worse yet the track had become a mud bog and it looked like our racing might be over for the weekend. But the racers weren’t ready to give up yet, so a few bags of lime dust were brought in and thanks to the efforts of volunteers like Mike Fuller, Mike Sanders, and even store owner Rick Marble, they were able to run the water off the track and clear out the mud. Once they had the track more stable a gas powered HPI Baja 5B was used to pack the track in.

The race team sets up the door prizes.

While the track was being worked on we decided to hand out all of the door prizes. Thanks to our very generous sponsors (58 in all) racers were treated to great giveaways once again this year at the Shootout. These door prizes also helped to lift spirits since many racers just suffered losses from the storm.

Each racer received a free JConcepts events t-shirt.

Each racer received a free Hobby Haven pit towel.

Along with the numerous door prizes, our title sponsor JConcepts gave away free events t-shirts, and each paid racer received a free commemorative pit towel from Hobby Haven.

About 3 hours later the track is ready for racing again.

At 11am the track was open for some practice and then at noon we started a condensed program that consisted of single A Mains to determine our class winners.

Something new for the Shootout this year was the chase for the red plate sponsored by FactoryOne RC. Each A Main finalist received a number plate to indicate their qualifying order, but the class TQ received a special red plate.

JConcepts driver Double D flies over the step up jump.

Since we were now running single A Mains the racing action intensified on the track. Out of the ten classes ran on Sunday, only three of the TQs were able to come away with the win as there were many lead changes and close battles out on the track.

Mason Fuller and X Factory’s Paul Sinclair.Photo credit: X Factory

In the Stock 2WD Buggy class young gun Mason Fuller was the highest finishing driver who didn’t already have a chassis sponsorship so he picked up the free X Factory carbon fiber X – 6 Cubed conversion kit.

Local racer Adam Grimm was able to take home two Tekno awards this weekend. He qualified 4th in the Modified 4WD Short Course Truck class and in the A Main he was able to cross the finish line first just seconds ahead of TQ Jamie Ferrell. Since Adam didn’t already have a chassis sponsor he was awarded the Tekno sponsorship. And before the 1/8 Electric Buggy A Main was ran, Adam was lucky enough to have his name drawn for the free V4 brushless kit. Tekno sponsored driver Ashley McCormick made the long trip from Oklahoma to attend this year’s event and awarded Adam with his conversion kit and also welcomed him to the Tekno race team.

JConcepts drivers bring home the hardware that weekend.

So once again it was another successful year for the Shootout despite Mother Nature’s best attempts to ruin all of our fun. This race gets bigger and crazier each year and I can’t wait to see what happens next!